Transcript Front office operations

Front office operations
The front office functions:
1- Reservation
2- Registration
3- Room and Rate assignment
4- Guest service
5- Room status
6- Maintenance and Settlement of guest accounts
7- Creation of guest history records
The front office develops and maintains a comprehensive
data base of guest information, coordinate guest service,
and ensure guest satisfaction.
Organization
• Large hotel organize the front office according
to function, with different employees handling
separate area.
Work shifts
• The workload for the front office employees is
40-hour weekly in most hotels.
Day shift
7 A.M. – 3 P.M.
Evening shift 3 P.M. – 11 P.M.
Night shift
11 P.M. – 7 A.M.
Job Description
• Job description is list of all the tasks that
compose a work position.
• Job descriptions include:
1. Outline reporting relationships
2. Responsibilities
3. Working conditions
4. Equipment and materials to be used
5. Other important information specific to the
place of employees.
Job Description
To be most effective:
• J.D. should be customized to the operational procedures of
a specific lodging property
• J.D. should be task oriented, they should be written for a
position, not for a particular employee.
• J.D. will become date and inappropriate as work
assignments change, so they should be reviewed at least
once a year for possible revision.
• Employees should be involved in writing and revising their
job descriptions.
• Written J.D. can minimize employee anxiety by specifying
the chain of command and the responsibilities of the job.
Job Description
Well-written Job Description can be used:
• In evaluation job performance.
• As an aid in training or retraining employees.
• To prevent unnecessary duplication of duties.
• To ensure that each job task is performed.
• To determine appropriate staffing levels.
Job Description
Finally each employee in the front office
department should be given a copy of the J.D.
for his/her position, even before an
employment.
Job specification
Room Division
• Room division is the most important department in the hotel in the term
of providing quality guest service, because this division has a high degree
of guest contact. And create the impression of a quality experience for the
guest. The room division prepares its product (guest room) for the guest
to stay. For example if the guest room does not meet the guest
expectation, then there is a lack of quality will be perceived by the guest.
• Room division consists
1. Housekeeping
2. Reservations
3. Front office
4. Uniformed service (bell captain include :bell staff, valet parking
personnel, doorpersons)
5. Transportation
6. Private branch exchange (PBX)- switchboard/telephone operators
7. Concierges (making reservation on airline, arrange babysitter, any other
services out of the hotel which it can help the guest)
Room Division
• The structure of the room division is vary from hotel to hotel and the
variations come from the differences in the:
1. The size of the hotel
2. Type of the service and Level of the service provided by different hotels
3. The geographic location
4. Local workforce skill levels
5. The organization preferences of management
The three major subdepartments in the room division:
1- security
2- Front office (F.O.)
3- housekeeping (H.K.)
These subdepartments come under the control of the room division manager.
Room Division
• The duties of room division manager:
1. Responsible for the supervision of employees engaged in the operation
of the front area of the hotel
2. Coordinates with other departments in the hotel and maintains open
communication with them to good service for the guest
3. Maintains responsibility for staffing, purchasing, and budgeting.
4. supervises the room division payroll, availability control and monthly
plans
5. Develops guideline and standers operating procedures to carry out the
policies of the room division
6. Create plans to maximize the average daily rate and percentage of
occupancy
7. Handless customer complaints and suggestions
8. Stay up to date with events taking place in the market, in the market
segments, and in the competition.
Front office
• Front office department include front desk,
reservation, PBX, uniformed service,
concierges.
• Each of these area is important in create a
positive experience for the guest of the hotel.
• Each of these area create an environmental
that will provide the highest level of guest
services.
Front office
• The duties of front office manager:
1. Supervise the department
2. Monitor guest service
3. assists the room division manager in compiling ‫جمع‬information for reports
4. Assists in the training of front office employees.
5. Prepares the daily payroll‫ سجل رواتب‬report, VIP room assignments ‫توزيعات‬, and
out of order rooms report.
6. Assists the RDM in the formulation and implementation of front office policies
and procedures.
7. Prepare the weekly schedule of employees
8. Reviews and approves ‫يوافق على‬all room move and room rate changes
9. Handless guest complains and follows them up to reduce future complains
10. Assists the RDM in forecasting room availability to ensure that the optimal level
of occupancy is attained .
Front Desk
• Open 24 hours per day , 7 day in the week ,
and 365 days in the year. And this is the center
of the hotel.
• The place where the guest get the
information, to get help, register most of their
complains.
• It is the front desk manager function which
include check-in and check-out procedures.
Front office operations
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There are four stage for guest cycle:
1- Pre-Arrival
2- Arrival
3- Occupancy
4- Departure
Pre-Arrival
• The guest chooses the hotel during the pre-arrival stage.
•There are many factors which can affected on the choice of hotel:
1. Previous experiences with the hotel.
2. Advertisements.
3. Company travel policy.
4. Recommendation from travel agents.
5. Friends.
6. Business associates.
7. The hotel’s location or reputation.
8. Frequent traveler programs.
9. Preconceptions based upon the hotel’s name or chain.
10. Room rate.
11. The guest decision may be influence by the ease of making reservations.
12. How the gent describes the hotel and its facilities.
Arrival Stage
• This stage include :
1. Registration.
2. Rooming functions.
The business relationship start from this stage between the guest
and the hotel through the front office.
The responsibility of the front office staff’s:
1- clarify the nature of the guest-hotel relationship.
2- monitor the financial transactions ‫صفقات‬between the hotel and the
guest.
3- the front office staff’s should be determine the guest’s reservation
status before beginning pre-registration process.
Arrival stage
• The front office agent must be familiar To sale
successfully with:
1. The hotel room type
2. Rate
3. Guest service
Be able to describe them in a positive manner.
Arrival stage
• Gathering all the important information in detail
at the time of reservation and registration
enhances the front office ability to satisfy special
guest needs.
• At check out the guest registration recorder may
become the primary data source for creating a
guest history record which record all the personal
and financial information about the hotel guest
which it can help the hotel in the marketing and
sales efforts
occupancy stage
• As the center of hotel activity
• Coordinating guest service is responsibility of the front desk among many
services.
• The front desk staff should respond to requests in a timely and accurate
way to maximize guest satisfaction.
• The major of front office objective to encourage repeat visits.
• Constructive communication between the front office and other
department/divisions with the guest.
• the hotel must be aware about the complains in order to resolve it.
• The front office Should carefully attend to guest concerns and try seek a
satisfactory resolution as quickly as possible.
• Security is another primary front office concern during occupancy stage.
• Variety of transactions during the occupancy stage affect guest and hotel
financial accounts
Occupancy stage
• Room rate of the guest room is the largest
single charge in the guest folio, and all the
expenses can be charged to a guest account as
service purchased from the hotel restaurant,
room service department, telephone bill,
transportation, gift shop, and other revenue
outlets
Departure
• Guest service and guest account aspects of
the guest cycle, and the final element of guest
service is processing the guest out of the hotel
and create a guest history file.
• The settlement of guest account is the final
element of guest accounting (that is bringing
the account to a zero balance)
Departure
• Check out:
1. The guest vacates the room
2. Receives an accurate statement of the settled
account.
3. Returns the room keys
4. Leaves the hotel
The front office system automatically updates
the room’s availability status
Departure
• During check out the front office staff’s should determine
whether the guest was satisfied with the stay and encourage
the guest to return to the hotel or the another property in the
chain.
• More information about the guest it can help the
management to develop marketing strategies to increase
business.
• a positive impression about the hotel: it important to for the
customers to leave the hotel with good impression and affect
how they talk about the hotel to the others more over it can
determining if the guest return to the hotel in the future or
not.
Departure
• Property management system: use
registration records to automatically construct
a guest history file.
• A guest history file: is a collection of guest
history records
Departure
• The purpose of account settlement is Collect money
due the hotel prior‫ مسبق‬to guest departure,
depending on the guest’s credit arrangements. The
guest will pay cash or by credit card.
• Account balances should be verified and errors
corrected before the guest leave the hotel
• May be the problem occur in the guest account
settlement for example when the charges are not
posted to the guest’s account until after the guest
checks out. These charges are called late charges.
Duties of front office personnel
• We will examine the duties of each section in the
front office:
1. The reservation office
2. Reception(the front desk)
3. Mail and information
4. Telephone
5. Guest relation offices
6. Front office cashier
7. Business centre
8. Night auditor
The reservation office
Staff in the reservation office include
• The reservation manager
• The reservation clerks
Duties of the reservation manager include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The reservation manager will be in control of the section.
Organize the staff duty rotas
Establish and maintain high standards of work
Make decision, whether bookings should be accepted or not
Example: over booking
The reservation office (con’t)
Reception(The Front Desk)
• The staff in the front desk section or
(Reception) include:
1. The reception manager or front desk
manager.
2. The reception supervisor or front desk
supervisor.
3. Senior receptionists and receptionists or
reception clerks\agents.
Reception(The Front Desk)
• In general the front desk controlled by the front desk
manager
• The duty of front desk manager to achieves the
maximum revenue and highest level of room
occupancy possible.
• The responsibility of reception manager to monitor
and motivate their staff and maintain a high profile
with the guests.
• This is helps to ensure that a quality service is being
given by the front office department in particular and
the hotel in general.
Reception(front desk)
• The responsibilities of the reception
supervisor :
1. Guarantee the smooth running of the front desk.
2. The y organize the duty rotas.
3. Handle complains or difficult customers which a
receptionist may not be able to deal with.
4. The duty of the front desk supervisor to notification
and greeting of important guests (VIPs).
Reception(front desk)
• The responsibilities of senior receptionist is:
1. The senior receptionist is in charge of each
shift of staff.
2. The responsibilities of senior reception will
assigning room to guests.
3. Dealing with group arrivals.
4. Handling guests’ immediate problems or
queries.
Reception(front desk)
• The responsibilities of receptionists or front
desk clerks\agent:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Prepare for the guests arrival
Greet the guests when they arrival
Check the guests into the hotel
Assign suitable rooms and check the guests method
of payment
5. They keep a record of the status of each room in the
hotel.